Vestar’s Acquisition of Unilever’s North American Laundry Business

On July 28, 2008, Unilever announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its North American laundry business in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico to Vestar Capital Partners. Cravath represented Unilever in this transaction. The consideration consists of a cash payment of $1.075 billion, preferred shares of The Sun Products Corporation with a face value of $375 million, and warrants offering the opportunity to acquire up to 2.5% of the common equity of Sun Products. The businesses to be sold include a variety of fabric cleaning and fabric conditioning brands in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as Unilever’s manufacturing facility in Baltimore, Maryland.

The lawyers involved in this matter were partner Mark I. Greene, associates Minh Van Ngo, Joel Unruch, Fleur J. Knowsley, Randall D. Walters and summer associate Richard Luft on corporate matters; associate Andrej Lang on antitrust matters; partner Michael L. Schler and associate Dana Frenkel on tax matters; associates Lori Diamond Goodman and Ali U. Nardali on executive compensation and benefits matters; senior attorney Gregory J. Battista on environmental matters; and associate Joyce Law on real estate matters.